Theory

{{The Elements of Drama{{

Form: dramatic category that groups works together that share similar general characteristics or structures (like puppetry)
Performance style: acting in a certain way that focuses on imitating life or presenting ideas
- representational: imitates life as it explores human psychology by placing characters in life-like situations and relationships on stage
- it is an imitation of life, characters don’t know the audience is there
- presentational: shows itself as a theatrical experience to the audience whilst the dramatic action unfolds
- focuses on communication of ideas or offering of theatrical experience, it makes contact with audience during performance

Stanislavski’s actors encouraged to use their powers of oberservation to learn more about people and behaviour
- watch and listen with real concentration
- more they observed, the more they would learn

super-objective: characters reason or motive for their behaviour
- trying to achieve something vitally important to themselves
- understand why their characters behaved as they did
objectives: might be scenes within each scene that contributed towards the final super objective

What if?
- ask themselves what I would do in this situation?
- project themselves into different people

Who, what are my circumstances, relationships, objective, achieve objective, what is my action, what is my super-objective

where actors are asked quick fire questions that they must answer as their character

actors need to consider the area that their attention and actions need to be directed to
3 different circles:
- self: keep to yourself, not interacting with others
- conversational: having conversation with one other person, energy and attention is focused solely on them
- whole world: this is the most power and most energy-demanding of the circles

a character was made up of 3 things: mind, feelings and will (or motivation)
- actor was driven by the character’s mind or feelings to choose physical actions
looks at a characters past and their psychology while an objective looks towards their actions

emotions had a distinct pulse and pattern
tempo is speed of an action (fast, medium slow)
rhythm, internally, is the intensity of the emotion, and externally, is the pattern of gestures, movements and actions
angry = fast, sad = slow

developed by Michael Chekhov, worked under Stanisvlaski
looked to find characters through a more physical approach
psychological gestures looked to break down a characters want or trait into a physical gesture, to later affect your performance at a subconscious level via physical memory
if you were playing a hero, you might find a gesture to symbolise the brave trait and use that in your performance

creative mind can flourish when using psychological gestures, which means the actor can benefit from disengaging themselves from the work
- this is the ‘inner life’ of the character, showing the different elements the character has come from
- walk on stage, you are that character instantly, off stage = not
externalising these feelings is the role of the actor

Balance: equal distribution of visual weight in a design, can be asymmetrical or symmetrical
contrast: design element or group of elements are juxtaposed
emphasis: element is used at a specific place to draw audience member’s eye to it - is the focal point because of its importance
harmony
movement
pattern: consistent, repeated use, can be regular or irregular, form a sense of rhythm or not
repetition: creates a sense of cohesiveness and unity
rhythm
scale/proportion
unity
variety

use of colour, texture and shape
venue, size of performing area, entrances and exits of actors and ease of scene changes

mood: presented on stage

atmosphere: created for the audience